Guide: What is Help a B2B Writer (HaB2BW)?

You know the drill by now. A long time ago, a guy made a platform (HARO/Connectively) to connect journalists and expert sources and help the two link up. Over time, that original platform stagnated and was eventually closed down at the end of 2024. In the meantime, dozens of others sprung up to do the same thing. Some of them closed, some of them merged, or were bought and shuttered, and some keep on keeping on. Most of them have some kind of twist to set them apart.

So it is that we come to Help A B2B Writer, with a much less catchy acronym than HARO but a pretty easily defined unique selling point right there in the name. And, much like other platforms in the space, HaB2BW was acquired from the original founder. In this case, Superpath bought it in 2022. So far, they've kept it running mostly as it was, though they have some changes planned.

If you've read any of my other guides to the various HARO-likes and Connectively alternatives, I could probably stop here. But, since you might not have, or you might be here specifically to see my opinions on HaB2BW, I'll dig right in.

How Help a B2B Writer Works, and What Makes It Different

Since HaB2BW isn't focusing on journalists the same way HARO and a lot of the others are, the terminology used for each side of the equation is a little different. You have Writers, and you have Sources.

Writers in HaB2BW

On one side, you have Writers. Writers are the people creating content and submitting requests. If you're creating content and you need a quote, a piece of data, an anecdote, or an interview with an expert in the field, you submit your request as a Writer.

Writers submit requests. In order to submit a request, all you do is fill out a form, which can be found on their website here.

This form asks you for some basic information for your request:

• Your name.
• Your email address.
• The URL where you'll publish your content.
• Your site's Domain Authority as checked by Ahrefs (optional but nice).
• A one-sentence summary of your request.
• The full description of your request.
• Your industry. The options are Advertising, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence / Data / Tech, B2B, Content Marketing, CRO, Customer Support + Experience, Design and UX, DTC, E-commerce, Education, Email, Engineering / Manufacturing, Entrepreneurship, Finance, HR, Insurance, Legal, Logistics, Management + Operations, Marketing (General), Media: Photography + Videography, Retail, SaaS, Sales, SEO, and Social Media.
• Whether or not you want them to share your request on their Twitter, and if so, what your Twitter account name is so people can message you there.
• Your deadline.
• Whether or not your request is urgent (a deadline within two days).

When you submit a request, it goes into their queue. There, they will review it and then either decline it or send it out to their list of sources in your chosen industry and post it on Twitter if you want them to. They also publish the day's requests on a sub-site, which you can see here.

Pro tip: Make sure you click that link and look at the kinds of requests circulating on their site. It's a good idea to see what other people are asking for and how they format your requests so you can make sure yours are similar.

How much does it cost to submit a request? Absolutely nothing. Just like HARO and most similar platforms, the people who actually publish content and put out backlinks - the value the sources get from the site - aren't charged for their service. After all, without them, the platform wouldn't work at all. It's like a dating site missing the people to date.

There is one limitation, which is that each publication can only submit up to three requests per week. Note that they say publication there, not writer; a site like Forbes, with hundreds of writers, can still only submit three requests per week.

Okay, well, I imagine that if Forbes wanted a better deal, they could get it. But the point is, for someone like me, I can only submit up to three for Content Powered each week. I could submit more for my clients if I wanted, though.

How to Succeed as a Writer

The site also gives some tips on how to make a successful request. For the most part, you can ignore most of what they have to say if your site has a high enough DA; the lower your DA, the more you need to compete for attention.

Tip 1: Specify What You're Looking For

The first tip they offer is to specify what you're looking for in your request.

Being thorough in who you want to hear from and what you're looking for helps minimize the back-and-forth or the failed follow-ups.

Tip 2: Specify What You're Not Looking For

Similarly, adding a line or two of who you don't want to hear from or what you don't want is also good. Even basic filtering details like "must be from a company that does at least $1m in revenue annually" can be a good filter. You don't need a ton to get people to self-filter their requests, though some will definitely shoot their shots anyway.

Tip 3: Choose Specific Relevant Tags

One important thing to keep in mind is the industry tags. I wrote down the full list (at least as of this writing) up above. Do not just select every tag that seems relevant. In programming terms, they're filters with AND in play. If you choose SaaS and SEO, it will filter the request to ONLY be visible to people who are registered with BOTH tags. You might miss the opinions of talented SaaS people who don't have much experience with SEO if you select both.

This is a good thing if you're only picking two tags, but if you pick four or five, your limitations become very strict very quickly, and the chances of an active audience being around to respond slim down considerably.

Tip 4: Keep the request relatively short and simple.

What HaB2BW has found over time is that the longer it takes a source to create a response, the less likely they are to do it. Longer and more intricate requests aren't likely to get filled. Remember, you can always follow up later if you want.

Tip 5: Be clear about what they get in return.

The usual expectation is a followed backlink in return for a source quote. You're allowed to ask what they want, though; some people would prefer a link to a LinkedIn page or a Twitter profile, and some are fine with a namedrop for their personal branding. If you aren't able to guarantee a link, don't offer it.

Sources in HaB2BW

Now, let's talk about the flip side, the sources. Sources are the experts of HaB2BW and are the ones providing their expertise, generally in return for a backlink from the writer's side. You can register as a source right here.

Signing up is super simple; all you need to do is give them your name and your email address. They send you an email to confirm your subscription, and then you're in. You'll eventually receive an email that allows you to choose which industries you're an expert in (and you can choose several, that's fine), which curates the emails you receive down the line.

You're fully allowed to be both a writer and a source if you want. In fact, someone like me - who manages many clients and would like to get quotes for them and who is an expert and can provide quotes to grow my own brand - is the perfect candidate to play both sides, as it were.

Once you're registered, you'll receive daily digests of recently submitted requests. These come in email form, but you can also just browse them directly if you prefer using the website, though I believe there's a bit of delay on the website versus the emails. That said, the website allows you to see requests in categories you don't normally subscribe to, so it might work better for some people with broad bases and full inboxes.

How Much Does HaB2BW Cost?

For most of the HARO-like platforms, being a Writer/Journalist costs nothing, but being a source has a fee since, otherwise, it could get very spammy. So, how much does it cost to be a source for Help a B2B Writer?

The answer is, for now, zero. That's right; it's one of the few (though not the only) of these platforms that is free for both sides to use.

Now, in their announcement of having acquired HaB2BW, Superpath mentioned that they wanted to add and change some things. They want to add privacy options (which they may have; I'm not sure how it worked two years ago, but right now, the "reply to" email for a Writer is anonymized, and it might not have been before) and they want to add a tighter focus on specific industry expertise.

They also mention wanting to add a premium tier with added features for sources, focused on "features that professional digital PR and SEO folks need to do their jobs." So far, though, they haven't actually created this premium tier, so who knows if it's going to actually happen or not at this point.

How to Succeed as a Source

Just like for Writers, HaB2BW offers tips on succeeding with your pitches as a Source. If you want more in-depth tips, I have a whole post on pitches for HARO-like sites, but I'll go over some of the most important ones here.

Tip 1: Fully read the request.

Requests will say what they're looking for, and often, some filtering details to stop people from responding to requests they aren't actually qualified for. This is because a lot of high-DA sites use the platform, so a lot of marketers want to shoot their shots even if they don't actually know what they're talking about. Make sure you read the full request, including anything that would disqualify you, so you can avoid wasting time on requests you don't fit.

Tip 2: Make sure you have relevant expertise.

Yes, this is really just another way of rephrasing the first tip, but it's just that important. I know a lot of us in marketing like to think we know a lot about a lot of things, but compared to true experts, it really ends up being clear that we don't. Be honest with yourself and your areas of expertise, and don't piss off the writers who don't want to hear from you. This is doubly important because if the writers get irritated enough to leave, it hurts the whole platform for everyone.

Tip 3: Give them the goods up-front.

It can be tempting to try to pitch who you are and give the writer a lead-in to reach out to you for a deeper conversation, but let me be one of the many to say: ain't nobody got time for that. Writers want to take a quote from an email and move on with their projects. If you're trying to sneak in an interview or a sales pitch or just hide that you don't know as much as you claim to know, all you're doing is wasting time, and chances are, the writer is just going to ignore you.

If you can answer their question, do it in the email you send to respond to the request. If they want more, they can reach out and ask for it.

Tip 4: Provide something unique.

HaB2BW recommends including screenshots or unique data if you have it and it's relevant. I say do that, but expand it; anything unique that you can provide, whether it's a case study, insider data, screenshots, audio, or video, anything can be added value and help you win over the writer's attention.

Remember that it's a lot easier for a writer to prune down your quote or leave off a screenshot than it is for them to ask for one later.

If you do include media, don't make them email attachments. Paste them directly in the email, or link to them somewhere from your domain or Google Drive or something of the sort.

Tip 5: Specify how you prefer to be credited.

The general expectation is that you'll get a link out of it, but that's not always possible. So, specify what you would prefer, and especially specify if it's a link to something other than your main site.

Other than that, there isn't much specific that I can add. Using HaB2BW is actually a fairly smooth and easy process, as long as you acknowledge that there's a ton of competition due to the lack of a paywall and don't expect endless, easy results. Even so, if you aren't confident in your ability to use it, I'll happily do it for you.